Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
ETR 724
Spring 2017
Khalifa Elgosbi
Yousef Alshrari
NIU
Children
of
Immigrants
in
U.S.
Public
Schools
Introduction
For the purposes of this study, the term immigrants is defined as people who
migrate to the United States mainly for the purposes of education or work, or because of
economic or political distress in their countries of origin, who live in the United States
and who were not U.S. citizens at birth (United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services, 2004). This includes naturalized U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, illegal
aliens, and those on long- term temporary visas such as students or temporary workers.
among schools and school districts because the differences are responsible for bridging
the gap between school children in terms of school GPA. Schools also realized that
children progress to achieve higher scores in tests and examinations. Helping school
practitioners to make better decisions is an objective that all schools are trying to reach
by understanding issues and factors that are related to children’s GPA and children’s
problems in education and might be hindered by them. Research and experimental studies
always need to determine why and what schools differ in terms of their policies so that
children’s families and community affect negatively and positively the way school
children of immigrants in the US schools are influenced by factors such as their families
economic status and their parents’ proficiency in English and these factors play a great
role in deciding issues such as a child’s participation and hence achievement in school
activities.
Schools are responsible for addressing such issues as early literacy gaps, and
later gaps because although these are out-of-school factors, they contribute widely to
cause literacy differences among school populations and consequently, they lead to
GPA and improvement at school education. Immigrant children are more likely to
encounter problems than their counterparts of children whose parents are born and grew
in the US. Among other problems there are the problems of “low family income, low
parental education, and language barriers that place them at risk of developmental delay
and poor academic performance once they enter school” (Karoly, & Gonzalez, 2011, p.
71).
parent involvement in their children’s school activities because e of their ethnic minority
problems such as cultural and linguistic barriers and eventually these problems affect the
students GPA in many ways. Authors and research writers recommend teacher training as
Children
of
Immigrants
in
U.S.
Public
Schools
a solution for parent engagement challenges in order to develop teachers’ ability to help
their students improve their GPA scores once the teachers and school staff can
is also another problem that, according to the current literature, is affecting students GPA
dramatically. However, despite the many research studies that have addressed this
problem, solutions are still limited by the disadvantages, which immigrant children
encounter due to their situation, and thus providing a programs of support for immigrant
children seems to be the only solution to help them become better learning adults.
Family economic status has been the focus of many studies both quantitatively
and qualitatively. The significance of this issue lies in the fact that it can directly affect
the child’s indulgence and test scores. Research has investigated potential problems for
immigrant children who attend US school programs and tried to determine factors that
are significant in enhancing educational development for immigrant children. The study
aimed at concentrating on low rates of participation that might characterize the learning
habits of immigrant schools and consequently affect their progress and achievement at
school both on their short and long-term school career. However, (Karoly, & Gonzalez,
2011) have pointed out that the elements of immigrant family economic status and
demographic characteristics are the most serious factors affecting the progress and
children’s participation in early care and education (ECE), there is a participation gap that
Children
of
Immigrants
in
U.S.
Public
Schools
can be explained by mainly by economic and socio-demographic factors, and that the
who investigated demographic change and the life circumstances of immigrant families
in the US, poverty rates are considerably higher for immigrant children than for children
of native-born families. The percentages showed a large gap between the poverty rates of
immigrant children (21%) and those of children belonging to native-born families (14%).
Therefore, the author suggested that educational policies and programs should focus on
abridging this gap by improving the wellness, academic achievement, and health care of
the immigrant children, who would be in need of these services more than their
counterparts. The factor of immigrant family economic status has a large impact on the
suffer from a gap, which does not only stop them from improving during school years,
but is also likely to cause them drop out from school at early development years.
Immigrant children are disadvantaged and economic status is held responsible for their
failures by most research studies (Hernandez, 2004; Karoly, & Gonzalez, 2011).
Research studies also pointed out that there are some solutions to the immigrant children
problems that are caused by their families’ economic situation. For example Gordon, &
Liu (2015), suggested that teachers and school staff where schools are experiencing
immigrant children achievement gap should help immigrant families with programs of
awareness to the differences between education in the united states and their own home
countries from which they have arrived. This awareness might help the parents not to
educational system for immigrant children. Another recommendation came from (Karloly
and Gonzalez (2011), who support that a lot of teacher training is needed, especially
around the issues of communicating with immigrant parents about their children’s
educational progress and about challenges regarding student scores. Such training should
include development of communication and research skills to improve the teachers and
school staff abilities toward following statistically and educationally the situation of the
School location
settled in urban areas they are increasingly also settling in suburban areas (Camarota,
2002). According to the 2000 United States Census, 49.7% of immigrants lived in
suburbs, compared to 49.8% U.S. born residents who reported living in the suburbs
(Camarota, 2002). Therefore, immigrants are just as likely as people who are born in the
The large number of immigrants who live in suburban areas could be interpreted
as a positive sign that immigrants are successfully integrating into U.S. society and
obtaining a middle class standard of living. However, some immigrants who are well
educated and enjoyed middle-class lifestyles in their home countries often find
themselves struggling to survive. They had to leave all belongings behind, and their
credentials are not recognized in this country. Consequently, they cannot find
employment commensurate with their education, and many times they cannot find
school system. This increasing number of immigrants means that there are also increasing
numbers of immigrant children whose first language is not English. Regardless of their
displacement, which in turn may affect their school achievement (Cornelius, 1995;
Liang (2015) cited authors (Rosenbaum, DeLuca, & Tuck, 2005; South &
Crowder, 1997), who support that social and economic statuses are influential criteria in
choosing schools and school districts. According to previous research, it seems that
middle-class families are usually able to live in more affordable districts and their
children are at the advantage of a better school programs. On the other hand, children of
immigrant families with poverty problems are usually trapped in less financially
supported schools and they are more likely to be deprived from educational policies and
Research Method
For the purpose of this class, we used a secondary data set provided by the
instructor of the course Dr. Tom Smith. The data is from a study about children of
schools and includes 148 variables. This longitudinal study aims to investigate how
Variables
Level one included the independent variable of family current economic situation
and the outcome variable of GPA. Independent variables of family current economic
Upper-middle class 5= Wealthy (ordinal variable), and School location (V 147) coded
students’ GPA (V 139) (interval variable). Both dependent and independent variables
are continues variable. Since the variables of GPA and family current economic
situation are nested in the cluster variable of school location, schools are considered
(ANCOVA Model)
4. Does school location predict the differences in students’ GPA, controlling for
Q4.1: Does school location predict the effect of FCES on students’ GPA?
Results
Descriptive data were obtained from the HLM output as shown below which describe
the variables name, number of participants (n= 5068), mean, and standard deviation.
Before making the DMD file we specified that there is missing values in the data. For
the outcome variable, the distribution of the residuals are normally distributed as
The relevant variance components is u0 = 0.279, t(41) = 692.31, and p <0.001.Yes there
(ANCOVA Model)
The relevant fixed effect is γ10 = 0.0214, t(5025) = 1.505, and p > 0.132. No, Family
The fixed effect of school location is γ01 = -0.195197, with t(40) = -2.211, p < .033. Yes
school location does predict students’ GPA. Because Gamma01 is negative, this is a
negative effect which means Suburban schools have higher average GPAs than Inner City
schools.
Standard Variance
Random Effect d.f. χ2 p-value
Deviation Component
INTRCPT1, u0 0.26519 0.07033 40 613.80384 <0.001
level-1, r 0.85873 0.73742
the correlation coefficient shows that the percentage increases as the school location
factors were added. They explained variance scored 75% in students’ GPA with the
The relevant fixed effect is γ01 = -0.204279, with p < .026. Yes, school location
significantly predicts students’ GPA when controlling for FCES. We used Grand Mean
Centering because we need to allow the effect to be different from each school by
Standard Variance
Random Effect d.f. χ2 p-value
Deviation Component
INTRCPT1, u0 0.26406 0.06973 40 576.80670 <0.001
FCES slope, u1 0.03809 0.00145 40 53.30937 0.077
level-1, r 0.85721 0.73481
Interpretation
of
R2
Children
of
Immigrants
in
U.S.
Public
Schools
!.!"#"$!!.!"#$%
R2
=
!.!"#"$
=
0.750697
or
75%
Differences in students’ GPA explained by school location when controlling for family
current economic situation scored percentage of 75%. This indicates that any increase in
school location scores leads to an increase in GPA. The explained variance in students’
Hypothesis
The relevant fixed effect is Gamma11 = 0.099847, with p = .003. Yes school location does
predict the effect of FCES on students’ GPA. Because .003 is less than alpha = .05, we
reject the null hypothesis of no effect. The nature of the fixed effect is positive, this
Children
of
Immigrants
in
U.S.
Public
Schools
means that the effect of FCES (0= suburban and 1= Inner city) becomes larger if school
Discussion
The testing of this data set started with the question: “Is there a significant
variation in students’ GPA among schools?” to see whether the level one variable are
nested in further clusters that make them available to be studied using hierarchal
modeling procedures. The analyses of the null model showed that significant variations
do exist among the different schools from, which the data were collected. With the p
value of p <0.001, u0 = 0.279, and t (41) = 692.31, we can conclude that clustering cannot
be ignored. In general, student GPA has been the center of many investigations and
authors have concluded that the relationships between students GPA and many other
factors such as economic status, family educational background, and school location.
According to Hernandez (2004), who investigated demographic change and the life
circumstances of immigrant families in the US, poverty rates are considerably higher for
immigrant children than for children of native-born families. The percentages showed a
large gap between the poverty rates of immigrant children (21%) and those of children
Analyses and hierarchal modeling of the set of data for this study showed that the
values of γ10 = 0.0214, t (5025) = 1.505, and p > 0.132 indicate non-significance of
“Family current economy situation” FCES in predicting students’ GPA. This finding is
very interesting, because nearly all prior research, which focuses on family economic
status as a factor of in-school differences among children concluded that the relationship
Children
of
Immigrants
in
U.S.
Public
Schools
is positive among school achievement and the children’s family current social and
However, the study proved consistent with previous research in the size and the
nature of the FCES effect on school location. The study showed that when it comes to
selection of school location, the scores tend to show an effect of family social and
economic statuses causing them to be influential criteria in choosing schools and school
districts (Liang, 2015; Rosenbaum, DeLuca, & Tuck, 2005; South & Crowder, 1997;
Waldfogel, 2012). According to the data output, the fixed effect of school location is γ01
= -0.195197, with t(40) = -2.211, with a p value of p < .033. This can be interpreted as:
school location does predict students’ GPA. At the same time this finding is in line with
research studies, which concluded that middle-class families are usually able to live in
more affordable districts and their children are at the advantage of a better school
programs. The study also revealed a negative effect of school location on FCES, which
means any one unit increase in suburban schools, is met by a decrease in the overall mean
GPA scores.
The study also investigated if school location predicts the differences in students’
GPA, controlling for family current economic situation. We used grand mean centering to
answer this question Centering because we need to allow the effect to be different from
each school by allowing all the means to vary. It turned out that the relevant fixed effect
is γ01 = -0.204279, with p < .026, which clearly indicates that school location
significantly predicts students’ GPA when controlling for FCES. School location was
also the focus of this study in another question that asked the possibility of using school
location to predict the effect of FCES on students’ GPA. The study here departs from the
Children
of
Immigrants
in
U.S.
Public
Schools
null hypothesis that says ‘There is no effect of school location in students’ GPA’; and the
positive hypothesis that says “There is an effect of school location in students’ GPA”.
The relevant fixed effect Gamma11 was computed and it was = 0.099847. The p value
is p = .003, which is less than alpha = .05, so we reject the null hypothesis of no effect.
The nature of the fixed effect is positive, which means an increase in the effect of FCES
should lead to an increase in the mean scores of school locations and vice versa. Clearly,
this finding is consistent with previous research of Karoly and Gonzalez (2011), who
investigated immigrant children’s participation in early care and education (ECE), there
demographic factors, and that the immigrant family’s economic status is a major factor.
Children
of
Immigrants
in
U.S.
Public
Schools
References
Denessen, E., Bakker, J., & Gierveld, M. (2007). Multi-ethnic schools' parental
Karoly, L. A., & Gonzalez, G. C. (2011). Early care and education for children in
Shodavaram, M. P., Jones, L. A., Weaver, L. R., Márquez, J. A., & Ensle, A. L.